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Rationalise teachers vacation to save resources - Deputy Education Minister
13 Jun 2016 at 07:08hrs | Views
The Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Paul Mavima has said there is a need for the government to rationalise the teachers' vacation so as to be at par with other civil servants in an effort to save government resources.
Mavima said there will be an avalanche of applications for leave by teachers, but there is a need for the ministries of education to really consider that ruling, sit down and come up with a framework.
"The original decision not to grant leave was a function of a number of things, but mainly taken within the context of the current fiscal space that we have. If a teacher went on 3 months leave which is a whole term, government had to appoint another teacher to replace them during that period. It meant that the teacher who is on leave is being paid and a new teacher who is replacing is also being paid. It was partly that consideration," he said.
"Also if you consider that teachers already have three months in which they are on semi vacation during school holidays and then they are given another opportunity after every 3 years to go on 4 months vacation. There is an imbalance with other civil servants. I think we need the guidance of our own legal minds to look at it again and see how we can rationalise it and put it within the context of that ruling, but also bringing fairness in terms of comparison with other civil servants and also considering the need to save on Government resources which are public resources."
Mavima said there will be an avalanche of applications for leave by teachers, but there is a need for the ministries of education to really consider that ruling, sit down and come up with a framework.
"The original decision not to grant leave was a function of a number of things, but mainly taken within the context of the current fiscal space that we have. If a teacher went on 3 months leave which is a whole term, government had to appoint another teacher to replace them during that period. It meant that the teacher who is on leave is being paid and a new teacher who is replacing is also being paid. It was partly that consideration," he said.
"Also if you consider that teachers already have three months in which they are on semi vacation during school holidays and then they are given another opportunity after every 3 years to go on 4 months vacation. There is an imbalance with other civil servants. I think we need the guidance of our own legal minds to look at it again and see how we can rationalise it and put it within the context of that ruling, but also bringing fairness in terms of comparison with other civil servants and also considering the need to save on Government resources which are public resources."
Source - Byo24News
